NEWS

On Tuesday, May 17th, members of the Petrides family and scholarship committee joined the Borough President’s office to present the Michael J. Petrides Student Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science to Shannon Yasuda, a student at Staten Island Technical High School.

The annual award is given to a graduating high school senior who excels in math and science. Each Staten Island high school is asked to submit a single nominee, from which the honoree and runner-up are selected. The award is named for Michael J. Petrides, a legendary Staten Island educator, who died in 1994.

A gifted student, Shannon Yasuda has excelled in Staten Island Tech’s pre-engineering curriculum sequence. Her academic achievements include being named a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship and being inducted to the National Honor Society. In addition to schoolwork, she has taken a leadership role in several organizations at her school, including the Computer Science Club, the Key Club and the Math Team.

“For the past 21 years, the Borough President’s office has honored some of the best and brightest students in the Staten Island community,” noted Borough President Oddo. “I am happy to continue the tradition of presenting this award to an extraordinary high school senior.”

Mohammed Hussari of the Michael J. Petrides School was named first runner up.

On Monday, May 16th, Borough President James S. Oddo recognized the important and heroic works of the Emergency Medical Services community with a special ceremony in their honor during National EMS Week at the Excelsior Grand. The event, which is unique to Staten Island, honored several EMTs, paramedics, instructors and students in the emergency services community.

"We have all relied on the help of EMTs and paramedics in times of need,” noted BP Oddo. “This ceremony is a simple way of saying thank you for being there for us when life is on the line. I would like to personally thank the EMS community for being there when my family needed you.”

In addition to giving out awards, the BP’s Emergency Medical Services Advisory Committee recognized Monsignor James Dorney posthumously for his contributions to the Staten Island EMS community. “There was no greater soul to walk on Staten Island,” BP Oddo said.

On Wednesday, May 4th, 2016, BP Oddo honored students from schools around the Island who participated in our “Readers Are Leaders” 4th Grade Reading Challenge. “Readers Are Leaders” challenged 4th grade classes in Staten Island’s public, parochial and private schools to read a minimum of six books at grade level or above during the five-week period of February 12th – March 18th. Students then submitted a report on their favorite book that they read during the period. Each school picked one “Exceptional Reader” to be honored at our ceremony.

This year, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of this wonderful program, which has fostered a lifelong love of reading in thousands of Staten Islanders.

Since the program was started in 1996, 4th graders have read more than 575,000 books for the annual challenge. This year, 40 schools participated with some 1,207 students completing the challenge.

“We read for all different reasons: To escape, be a better writer, ignite your imagination, get smarter, learn more about a hobby and go to faraway places,” said BP Oddo. “I’m proud to continue this program and hope that those who participated over the past 20 years continue to read as they grow older.”

To make this year’s ceremony extra special, BP Oddo partnered with magician and author Mike Lane, who mystified the crowd with a magic show and gave out awards to students who read books from his “Magic Shop” series. We were also happy to be joined by Vito Fossella, who began the program 20 years ago when he was a City Council member. Special thanks to CTV, Macmillan Publishing and Barnes and Noble, who sponsored the event.